02 March 2009

Visitors to IPC from Taisei Junior High School Japan

By Shirley Ghozalli. Edited by Moira Blake and Leanne Roberts.

The visiting Taisei Junior High School students with IPC students and staff members

As part of their annual program, students from Taisei Junior High School (Taisei Chuugaku) in Aichi prefecture come on a field trip to the Manawatu region in the North Island of New Zealand. Taisei Junior High School is one of the top schools in Japan for Judo. The students live with homestay families and study English at a local school for a month. They also visit many places around the region. Some of the places are local tertiary institutions and IPC is one of them.

On Wednesday 25th February, a group of 28 students came and had their first taste of what it would be like to be studying at IPC. Accompanied by the Director of World Youth Service New Zealand (WYS-NZ), Mr Richard Ellis, and their 2 teachers, Sugiyuda Sensei and Matsuhara Sensei, the students were welcomed by IPC Dean of International Studies, Mr Peter Finch, and IPC Senior Student Support Advisor, Mr Hiro Tsumakura, in the Senior Common Room. Movies about IPC were also shown to introduce the students to IPC.

This was followed by a walk around the campus to participate in a scavenger hunt game. Guided by IPC students and staff members, the visiting students looked at the IPC facilities and spoke to other IPC students they met on the way in order to answer the questions in the game.

When asked what they thought of IPC, one of the students said in English that he was glad to have come to IPC. Another student expressed her surprise at seeing the manga (Japanese comic) collection at IPC Library because she had never thought to see them so far away from Japan, not even translated into English as these manga were.

The group meeting IPC students in the IPC Library

Two of the students asking an IPC student to answer the scavenger hunt questions

Mr Peter Finch welcomed the group

<Back  |  ^Top